Creature (7)
Planeswalker (2)
Land (22)
Artifact (4)
Instant (22)
- 4x Countersquall
- 2x Echoing Truth
- 4x Geth's Verdict
- 3x Go for the Throat
- 2x Hero's Downfall
- 4x Thought Scour
- 3x Victim of Night
Sorcery (3)
Sideboard
Artifact (3)
Instant (12)
Maybeboard
Creature (2)
Land (1)
Instant (4)
Sorcery (3)
"In darkness one may be ashamed of what one does, without the shame of disgrace" ~Sophocles
Basic Description
This is a
version of my deck Scepter of Command. It aims to control whatever your opponent trows at you and then finishing him with mill or huge creatures.Isochron Scepter grants the ability of unlimited use of the removals or counters you need to own the game.
The improvements I made from the previous scepter based deck are substantial, with this build you have significant battlefield control even when you can't rely on Isochron Scepter, the win conditions are more solid and, most importantly, it's more fun to play.
Win Conditions:
There are at least 3 win conditions in this deck:
- Isochron Scepter+Thought Scour for mill.
- Damage from Vendilion Clique, Snapcaster Mage and even Creeping Tar Pit
- Liliana Vess last ability to gain control of a huge army to trow at your enemy.
Cards Breakdown:
(in alphabetic order)
Mainboard
- Academy Ruins: Useful land that lets you get back Isochron Scepter if it gets milled or destroyed.
- Countersquall: Keeps your opponent's planeswalkers away from the battlefield, protects your creatures from removals and is an insurance against nasty tricks your opponent may cast at you.
- Creeping Tar Pit: Good mana fixer and solid damage dealer when you need it
- Damnation: Most of the times you won't have any creature out so this spell is particularly useful against token decks or if your opponent is casting more creatures you can manage to kill. It saved my life countless times against aggro decks.
- Dimir Infiltrator: Nice damage dealer and also lets you dig for Isochron Scepter.
- Echoing Truth: The permanent bouncer that can kill hordes of tokens with just one mana. Can be imprinted and work as an infinite bouncer and can be used to remove nasty enchantments or planeswalkers from the board. Awsome when combined with a negate Negate.
- Geth's Verdict: Very powerful removal since it doesn't require to target creatures (that can be easily protected) and, if imprinted on Isochron Scepter, lets you also ping your opponent for 1 life a turn even if he has no creatures on the board.
- Go for the Throat: One of the best 2 mana creature removals.
- Hero's Downfall: The ultimate removal. The planeswalker removal is worth the 3 mana.
- Isochron Scepter: A weapon of mass destruction if you imprint a removal spell; a massive control factor if you imprint Negate on it; A deadly mill and card advantage factory if you imprint Thought Scour.
- Liliana Vess: Fair mana-to-loyalty ratio, the first ability is a pain in the @55 for your opponent, the second one lets you go right for Isochron Scepter or an instant when you need to and the third can basically be read as "win the game".
- Snapcaster Mage: Great as surprise blocker and instants resurrector. It can also ping your opponent with damage if you manage (and you will) to keep the board clean of opposing creatures.
- Thought Scour: Great card in this deck. In early game lets you draw cards, then puts creatures from the library directly to the graveyard to power up Liliana Vess and when imprinted on Isochron Scepter becomes a win condition.
- Vendilion Clique: A whole rounded creature. Lets you have a bit of control over your opponent's hand and it's a fairly good damage dealer
- Victim of Night: Probably the best 2 mana removal spell.
Sideboard
- Deprive : Against decks that run very few creatures you won't need all those removals, this card will allow you to better control other control decks and can also be imprinted on the scepter.
- Devour Flesh : Useful if your opponent is running either shroud/hexproof or indestructible creatures or against black artifact or vampire/zombie/werewolf decks.
- Doom Blade: If your opponent is running an artifact deck then swap Go for the Throat for this. If, instead, he's using a zombie, vampire or werewolf deck swap it for Victim of Night but, since they will probably include black, it may be better to go for Devour Flesh or another Go for the Throat.
- Hero's Downfall: This deck is very good against creatures but planeswalkers can become a pain. This spell is the perfect response to those annoying party blowers.
- Witchbane Orb: While playtesting this deck I noticed its very vulnerable to direct damage spells. This artifact may change the whole story. It's also useful as a protection from mill since many mill spells require to target the opponent.
Maybeboard
- Blood Artist: With all the removals in this deck this creature can inflict quite a lot of damage, probably not enough to win a place in the board though
- Beckon Apparition: Can be imprinted and has a lot of synergies with Thought Scour or can be used on your own instants. I playtested it but was rarely of any use.
- Far / Away : Can be imprinted on the scepter and then used for any of the two parts. If you cast it from hand can work also as a removal+bounce.
- Glimpse the Unthinkable: It would be great if it was an instant. Nice miller but not fit in here, I think.
- Grisly Spectacle: Too expensive for a Go for the Throat with mill since it's not the only, and I'd say neither the main, win condition of this deck
- Inquisition of Kozilek: Discard may not be the main theme of this deck but controlling your opponent hand may represent a nice advantage
- Muddle the Mixture: It'a counter and may be a replacement of Dimir Infiltrator if you feel you need even more control.
- Nephalia Drownyard: Great land that can become a win condition but I already have included Academy Ruins that can produce only colorless, including this too may be too much.
- Sign in Blood: Very good card that lets you draw early in the game and then can become a damager or miller. Unfortunately it can't be imprinted on Isochron Scepter.
- Wight of Precinct Six: In late game becomes a huge damage dealer but you can also drop it earlier since it's cheap if you want to attack for small damage right away or use it as a blocker. Borded out because it relies on having creatures in your opponent's graveyard just as Liliana Vess
Hall of Fame
People that have contributed to this deck build with their comments and suggestions
Want More?!
Here is a list of other decks I built
Modern
- Aim for the Heart:
burn deck that wins by trowing huge damage to your opponent's face - Smash, don't think:
fast aggro deck - Scepter of Command:
total control deck based on Isochron Scepter - A pariah will save us:
combo deck that aims to making you invulnerable to damage. - Realm of Illusion:
budget illusions deck. - One Damage is Enough:
deck based on tap-to-damage creatures like
Vulshok Sorcerer
Legacy
- Ping of Death:
control deck that aims to deal a small but steady ammount of damage each turn
As always, Comments and Suggestions are welcome
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| Date added | 11 years |
| Last updated | 10 years |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 6 - 0 Mythic Rares 19 - 3 Rares 9 - 3 Uncommons 16 - 9 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.32 |
| Folders | Control, control/mill, Future decks |
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